Playing

The Deal

Traditionally the game starts with rather complicated preliminaries: e.g., the players throw the dice several times in order to determine the seat order, the first dealer (East) and to determine the place where the Wall is to be broken (this position is called the dominant Wind). Though the dealer is selected in Four Winds simply by a random number generator, and the Wall is but an array of variables, the idea of this ceremonial deal has been retained in the program by simulating it in algorithms.

After the player’s positions (i.e., their winds during the deal) have been determined and the Wall has been built and broken (the breaking point indicating where the first tile is to be dealt), the deal starts.

Each player is dealt thirteen tiles, except the dealer, who receives fourteen tiles.

The tiles are dealt counter-clockwise in sets of four so that the dealer (East) gets the first four tiles, then each of the other players receives four tiles in order South, West, and North. This is repeated three times. Then the dealer gets two tiles (this is called chan-chan because of the clicking noise caused when picking up the tiles), after which others are dealt one tile each.

If the Show Deal command on the Options menu is checked, the deal is animated. Otherwise the players’ dealt hands are displayed immediately.

The Wall and the Dead Wall

After the deal is completed, there are 83 tiles (or more, if Flowers and Seasons or jokers are used) left to play. You can see the number of tiles left in the Wall in the Tiles Left Indicator located on the status bar. Traditionally the 14 tiles to the right of the breaking point of the Wall are designated as a Dead Wall (also known as Garden Wall, Flower Wall, or Kong box). The remaining 69 tiles (or more, if extra tiles are used) comprise the Wall.

The tiles of the Dead Wall are reserved as supplement tiles. The supplement tiles are used when a player needs an extra tile after having declared a Kong, or after having received a Flower or a Season tile (though in early classical rules supplements for Flowers and Seasons were taken from the open end of the Wall). Traditionally the leftmost two tiles of this stack were always placed on top of the Dead Wall (and accordingly called “loose tiles”), but in the modern Mah Jong this is no longer done.
Normally the Dead Wall is replenished by taking a replacement tile from the other end of the Wall so that the number of supplement tiles always remains 14. Thus each supplement tile used reduces the number of playable tiles in the Wall by one. In some rules (e.g., in early classical Chinese rules), however, the supplement tiles are not replaced; instead, a certain number of tiles (sometimes 14 or 16, sometimes even more) is simply reserved as supplement tiles and cannot be used for other purposes. In the American and Australian rules and highly pattern-centered Asian rules the Dead Wall is not used, at all, in which case the supplement tiles are simply taken from the other end of the Wall and all tiles of the Wall are available for play.
If the Dora tiles are used in the game, only the four first of the 14 tiles of the Dead Wall can be used as supplement tiles. The rest of the tiles are reserved as Dora tiles. Accordingly, when Dora tiles are used in the game, the maximum number of Kongs that can be declared during the deal is four, and Flowers and Seasons cannot be used (unless the supplement tiles for Flowers and Seasons are taken from the Wall).
You can choose the way the Dead Wall is used by choosing a desired option from the Dead Wall drop-down list on the General option page under the Rules section in the category tree of the Preferences dialog box. For more information, see Dead Wall options.

If a game board with separate views is used and the Show Wall on deal option is checked on the Gameplay option page (under the User Interface section in the category tree of the Preferences dialog box), the Wall window is displayed while the deal is going on and you can see how the Wall is broken at the start of the deal and how the tiles are taken from the Wall as they are dealt to the players. To display or hide the Wall window during the game, choose Wall Window on the View menu, or press the equivalent shortcut key (CTRL+W).

You can also force showing the contents of the Wall and Dead Wall after the deal is over by checking the Expose Wall after deal is over box on the the Gameplay option page.

Replacing the Flowers and Season

If the Flowers and/or Seasons are used in the game, all Flower and Season tiles received in the dealt hand are immediately replaced with a supplement tile. This is repeated until all players’ hands consist of regular tiles only. Replacing is done in the regular playing order (East, South, West, North) before the first move.